Experimental Investigation on the Vertical Temperature Profile of Spilled Plume from a Compartment-Facade Fire with a Horizontal Projection

This paper is focused on the evolution of the vertical temperature profile of spilled plume originated from a compartment-facade fire under the conditions of different horizontal projection lengths. A series of reduced scale experiments were carried out in a 1:8 cubic fire compartment model with a single window at the center of the compartment’s side wall. A vertical facade wall was attached to the compartment window, and a horizontal projection was installed at the level of window’s top as the representative of a fire protection cornice in a real building. In the experiments, by varying the length of horizontal projection, the total heat release rate as well as the window sizes, the vertical temperature recorded by a series of thermocouples along the centerline of facade wall was analyzed. Results showed that, with the presence of horizontal projection, especially for a longer projection, the temperature of the spilled plume was reduced significantly, which is beneficial to fire protection in high-rise buildings. Meanwhile, two different regions were observed due to the flame retrieving effect to the facade wall, and therefore, the temperature would first increase and then decrease in the vertical direction, which is completely different from the results obtained without the horizontal projections. A critical vertical height with the highest temperature was discovered, and regarded as the new reference point. On this basis, a new normalized vertical height based upon the reference point and a new virtual origin were brought up. Finally, new correlations of vertical temperature with the updated normalized vertical height were proposed within the buoyancy plume region. This is a novel investigation for the spilled flow dynamics from a compartment-facade fire with horizontal projection conditions, and has great significance for improving the fire-fighting capabilities for a building in practice.